Thoughts on bio-active cya reducer

[heugeneo]

Thanks for answer on biguanides, that makes sense.

Donny, draining the pool would probably normally be easier, but I have a fg pool and a high water table. I'm also on a well which cannot handle that volume without sucking sand and on top of that the water is high on iron, which is obviously problematic. As such in my area the cheapest rate for water is $150 for 4000 gallons. Each time I swap out 4000 gallons I'm just diluting, not doing a complete swap so even if 20,000 gallons got me in the cya range I wanted that would be $750. So if the bioactive is giving me results, even incremental ones, it is still a better option for me. Besides, someone needs to be willing to try new things instead of just assuming the old way is always the best way. However, it may turn out swapping water is the only option.

With that being said, CYA after another 24 hours is still 160.

On an unrelated note did the thread from cya guy get deleted?

 

[borjis]

^^agreed.

some folks are forgetting that for some of us partial/drains and refills are very costly....much more than at least trying the reducer.

My costs are not quite as much as yours but close.

The water temp of my pool is over 60 degrees now and I will probably let
my chlorine drift this week down to 3 to begin my trial of the cya reducer.

 

[Donny]

Thanks for answer on biguanides, that makes sense.

Donny, draining the pool would probably normally be easier, but I have a fg pool and a high water table. I'm also on a well which cannot handle that volume without sucking sand and on top of that the water is high on iron, which is obviously problematic. As such in my area the cheapest rate for water is $150 for 4000 gallons. Each time I swap out 4000 gallons I'm just diluting, not doing a complete swap so even if 20,000 gallons got me in the cya range I wanted that would be $750. So if the bioactive is giving me results, even incremental ones, it is still a better option for me. Besides, someone needs to be willing to try new things instead of just assuming the old way is always the best way. However, it may turn out swapping water is the only option.

With that being said, CYA after another 24 hours is still 160.

On an unrelated note did the thread from cya guy get deleted?

I get where you are coming from. It just seems to me that the product is not doing what it was intended to do. So 375.00 would get you a half drain, and in theory cut your CYA level in half. I guess that's just too expensive as well, but something I would have given a great deal of thought. Before you know it, you could be approaching that 375.00 is my point really.

 

[heugeneo]

I've already swapped 8000 gallons, so between that and the bioactive I'm over $500. I'm gunna give the product some more time to work before calling it quits and doing another water swap. The water won't be warm enough to swim until the end of the month anyway, but by the time I'm done I may very well had wished I would have just done the water.

 

[Donny]

Oh boy, I hope the bioactive comes through ! We would all like to use a CYA reducer if the darn product works. Good Luck!!

 

[duraleigh]

huegeneo,

How much is your water per 1,000 gallons? Most places in the country it's as low as between $4 and $8......higher on the Left Coast.

 

[heugeneo]

huegeneo,

How much is your water per 1,000 gallons? Most places in the country it's as low as between $4 and $8......higher on the Left Coast.

I'm sure thats correct if you have a water utility, I do not, see below from my earlier post.

I have a fg pool and a high water table. I'm also on a well which cannot handle that volume without sucking sand and on top of that the water is high on iron, which is obviously problematic. As such in my area the cheapest rate for water is $150 for 4000 gallons

 

[borjis]

I might add that my cost to refill is not that bad.

3 partial refills (drained to winter levels just below returns) cost
by itself: $ 50

But it's the draining that kills it. The sewer utility company is a darn ripoff on the east side of town.

That was well over $ 200 alone.

I used to live on the west side (same utility co) and they charge a lot less over there.
It's my understanding due to the east side not having sewer until the last decade where
the west side of town had it as early as the 60's.

At any rate its a helluva lot.

 

[heugeneo]

Day 5 of bags 3 & 4.

Started with cya of about 200.


Today:
FC .5
CC .5
PH 7.4
CYA 150
Water Temp finally at 65

It does seem to be going down, but not a rate that is acceptable for adding 2 bags of the product. It is also probably still within the testing margin of error.

 

[heugeneo]

Day 6

FC .5
CC .5
PH 7.4
CYA 160

Glad I'm not holding my breath waiting for this to work....

 

[heugeneo]

Day 7

Cya is still 160.

This was the final day for my testing. While my cya has lowered, it was not by the amount I had hoped for the amount of product I have used. The last day I did a water swap my cya level was 250. That reading was taken the evening of the water swap. I don't know if cya levels take time to show lower readings after dilution or not. If they do take time, then that could be an explanation for my current reading of 160. If the 250 reading is correct as a starting point, then 3 bags of bioactive have resulted in a decrease of 90 ppm cya, for an average of 30 ppm per bag. 30 is a far cry from the 150 claim per bag. I followed all recommendations for application with the exception of water temp, which was between 50 - 60 degrees for the majority of the testing.

 

[JasonLion]

Dilution will lower the CYA level as soon as the old and new water are throughly mixed (typically several hours with the pump running).

 

[heugeneo]

So I swapped out another 8000 gallons and cya is now down to 90. I may try one more bag of bioactive now that there is no diluting to get test results to see if it goes down any. If that does nothing I can deal with a cya of 90 considering I started with approximately 500.

 

[Aqua Lab Rat]

I have a bag of the stuff that I bought from Pool Supply World online. Currently doing a small-scale experiment, will share any conclusive results. Back of the bag says "...proprietary composite biocatalyst blend of all natural micro-organism cultures and enzymes in a nutrient powder."

 

[borjis]

I'm about ready to try as well.

Looks like my fc level will be at 4ppm by monday.

water temp is now 66 degrees daily.

tested cya sunday and its now 100 on a 1:1 dillution test. (heavy rain since last time I checked it)

can't wait to see what happens.

 

[rodog123]

Still following this. Thank you all for posting your results.

 

[SwimmingpoolAZ]

I still haven't seen any significant results in my test pool. I bumped into a guy today here in Phoenix at the supply house who works for one of the bigger pool companies in the valley. He bought a whole case, tested it on 9 pools (including his own). No change in any of the pools. He said he had the Chlorine in check, pH dialed in, still no results.

It's frustrating because we NEED a product that does what Bio-Active claims to do. I manage over 3 million gallons of water all over Phoenix/Scottsdale/PV and we'll dump close to a third of that down the drain in a year because of high CYA levels.

 

[carpainterinaz]

I too tried the product with less then satisfied results. Started with a cya north of 200. Put in a bag waited a week following all the instructions in regards to fc level, ph, and running the pump. Added a second bag after 8 days waited another week, cya dropped down to 160-170. Then the pool started turning the slightest tinge of green. Threw my hands up in the air said oh well. Got the pump out of the attic and drained out 3/4 of the pool. Refilled it, and now my cya is 40-45. Pool has been on a liquid diet for 2 weeks now and the water has never looked better. Spent about 95$ on the product for 2 bags lesson learned I suppose.
On a side note I read in a post about high cya level and the water looking dull. I can 100% confirm that. Water looked dull and lifeless before. Sparkling and glassy now.

 

[Aqua Lab Rat]

I'm doing a small-scale test in 250 gallon tank. Tank has a heater, pump, and filter. I added CYA to get near the top of the test kit range. On 5/6 the tank was about 95ppm of CYA, 3.20ppm total CL, 2.86ppm free CL, and 7.6 pH. Water temp is being maintained at 80 degrees. After taking my readings, I added 2.26g of the reducer which is scaling the 226g bag down from 25k gallons to my 250 gallons. Today is 5/8 and no observable change in CYA reading. It crossed my mind that since I only took a small amount off the top, maybe the bag had settled & separated and that I had added mostly the nutrient portion instead of the biological portion. Not sure if that can actually happen, just looking for potential issues with my method. But if I get no result after a week, I will be stirring it up and then adding more to the tank.

Also wondering why the package says "Recommended for outdoor pools only." Obviously that's where you would likely have high CYA, but does the stuff need sunlight to work?

 

[eternal optimist]

I live in the Central Valley of California where we are enduring historic drought conditions, so dumping pool water to lower CYA levels is not an option. This will be the fourth summer we've had our 13 x 24 ft plaster in ground pool. It's been a learning experience! Last year it seemed that I couldn't add enough chlorine to deter algae. Apparently my profligate use of trichlor pucks was what pushed my CYA count so high. Anyway, I was delighted to learn about Bio-Active, and have decided to try it. (And yes, I see by recent posts that it doesn't seem to do miracles.

I slammed my pool last week and now have alkalinity at 100, pH at 7.2. FC and CC read 1.0. CYA, measured by diluting it 2:1, is 170 ppm. I will add another gallon of 12 pct chlorine tonite and add the enzymes tomorrow. I will report results whenever I have some.

(13,000 gallon plaster in-ground pool, new Sta-rite Intellipro 3.0 HP pump, Crystal Water 425 ft/m cartridge filter, Polaris 360 Crawler)